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Karen Whitney Maturure
Correspondent
There is a famous Shona proverb: “Muzivi wenzira yeparuware ndiye mufambi wayo” (He who uses the footpath over a rock knows where it is. To all others there is no path there.)

As Zimbabwe is facing a myriad of economic challenges it is time that she takes more time to learn from the development paths of others and perhaps more so that of her closest ally: China.

This resonates with the idea behind Rostow’s growth model where developing nations need to follow the stages taken by those ahead in the development process.

As Zimbabwe begins a new economic era with the availing of a new economic blueprint; the NDS1; there is need to develop learning relationships and strengthen existing ones.

The nations of Zimbabwe and China have enjoyed relations since the pre-independence times where China assisted the former to gain independence from its colonisers.

As the nation seeks to achieve significant economic gains to become a middle-income economy by 2030, Zimbabwe could maximise on its relations with China as their newly availed economic development plans are in harmony.

Zimbabwe has crafted the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), a plan that runs from 2021-2025 and succeeds the Transitional Stabilisation Program (TSP) which ends this year (2020). On the other hand China has also released their 14th Economic Development Plan also set for 2021–2025.

The Zimbabwean NDS 1 seeks to make Zimbabwe “an Upper Middle Income” by 2030 and  to accelerate economic growth, improve the public sector and strategic infrastructure such as energy, ICT, transport and house delivery, among others. Other objectives under the new economic blueprint include maintaining fiscal balance at no more than three percent of GDP, single-digit inflation, increase in international reserves to at least six months import cover from the current less than a month, as well as maintaining domestic and external debt at below 70 percent of GDP.

The Chinese 14th five-year plan (2021-2025) on the other hand seeks to make China a “moderately developed economy by 2035” and to Replace high-speed growth with high-quality growth, to build China into a technological powerhouse, Re- balance the Chinese economy with supply-side structural reform, and to expand domestic demand, while continuing to support international export markets among other ambitious goals.

Already one can begin to see how these two plans synch. It is apparent that both countries are focusing on growth economics but while balancing this with an emphasis on sustainability.

However, Zimbabwe seems more ambitious in declaring an annual growth of over 5 percent through 2025 while China only speaks of “high quality growth”.

With China striving towards being “a global leader in innovation” it is apparent that there is an opportunity for Zimbabwe in terms of learning from that country with regards to their ICT growth and abilities.

Zimbabwe can harness the much needed technological advancements through knowledge and skills transfer that can be made possible through people-to- people and cultural exchanges as well as allowing more Chinese ICT companies to operate within the country.

The goal is to move away from just the production of knowledge to encompass the practical applications.

China’s plan demonstrates the economy’s wish to focus on improving internal demand while maintaining its hegemony in export markets in what has been termed, “dual circulation at home and abroad”. Zimbabwe could also emulate this as the Chinese economy grew to its current recognizable status through import substitution and its ambition to dominate international value chains. As Zimbabwe sets out to strengthen its agricultural, mining, manufacturing and tourism sector as per the NDS1, she could borrow the modernization aspect of the Chinese 5-year plan to improve agricultural quality and competitiveness abroad by speeding up modernisation of its agricultural sector.

Zimbabwe can also pick a lesson from how China has abandoned numerical targets for growth and has settled for “quality growth over speed”. However the former has pegged their growth target to over 5 percent through 2025 which is quite ambitious but however not impossible.

As a new economic era begins for the nation, it is time for Zimbabwe to meaningfully tap into its Strategic partnerships for sustainable development and eventually shift its position in international affairs. The ailing economy can take lessons from the development paths of others including its favourite ally: China, arguably the largest developing country. The future looks promising if the staggering economy holds on to the leaping giant.

Karen Whitney Maturure is a student at the University of Zimbabwe about to complete a Master’s Degree in International Relations. She is a Communications and Administration Assistant for BIO-HUB Trust. 

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